Last weekend, at my home in the mid-atlantic region, we had an incredible amount of rainfall after two months of drought. In the past, we have had issues during heavy rain with the drain at the base of the outside foundation stairway (areaway) clogging and the overflow seeping in through the basement doorway.
During the night, I awoke to sound of the rain pounding on my roof and thought I better head down and check the drain. The drain runs to the sump pump in the unfinished area of the basement. I first checked the sump and saw that no water was flowing in through the areaway drain pipe or the a second pipe which runs from somewhere outside the foundation. I went to the areaway drain and it was clogged. I unclogged it and watched it drain. At that point I returned to the sump and noticed water was pouring quickly from the foundation pipe where none was before. At that same time, I realized I had water leaking from a small crack in the foundation wall about five feet above the floor. After draining for approximately 15 minutes the leak slowed and eventually stopped. The water from the foundation drain continued to run for another 45 minutes or so but that too eventually stopped. Thankfully, I averted any major damages, though if we had not been home or I had slept a bit more soundly it would have been very ugly.
Questions: First, I have no explanation for why the foundation drain did not run to the sump simply because the areaway drain was clogged. Is it possible there was some sort of air lock created that prevented the foundation from draining?
Second, There was a lot and I mean A LOT of water in the foundation. The fact that we received such a large quantity of water on what is now hard pan undoubtedly contributed to this, but should I be concerned about this? Are there any ramification to having this much water surrounding the foundation?
Third, the sump pump spews its contents to a pipe which is literally an inch or two from the foundation wall. Is this appropriate? Should the water be channelled farther from the house?
TIA for your responses, Mike